Quote from Forum Archives on November 3, 2008, 7:46 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

 

THE CERTAINTY OF HOPE

November 2, 2008

 

 

Text: 1 Timothy 4:1-16

 

Certain themes tend to emerge during election seasons.  This one has been no different, with the prominent themes of “change” and “hope.”  In their own ways, all candidates, especially the presidential contenders, make it clear that for positive change and hope, we are to place our trust – and our vote – in them.  Now the last time I took a close look, regardless of the party, the ideology, and the policies that each of these candidates support, each and every one of them is flesh and blood just like us.  We all require water and food for nourishment; we all need a certain mixture of oxygen and other gases to live; we are all limited in our ability to know what the future holds; we are all mortal.  The next man who is sworn into the office of the President of the United States of America is as human as any of us here this morning.  Yet, we are increasingly asked to place our hope in him.  Does this make good sense?

 

According to the Bible, our answer should be, “No, this does not make sense.”  What kind of hope can we ultimately have in a fellow human being who knows as little about the future as the rest of us?  This kind of hope must always be uncertain, for we do not know how situations will change that causes us to lose hope in both persons and things in which we may have had hope.  Paul, in his letter to Timothy, lets us know the only source for certain hope, and we read it in verses 9 and 10: “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.”  Outside of the living God, the Savior of all who believe, there is only an uncertain hope.  With our lives in a born-again relationship with God, we have the certainty of hope.

 

I read the entire chapter of 1 Timothy 4 this morning for a couple of reasons.  First, it embodies a complete thought, and it makes more sense to read it all together instead of breaking it up.  Second, there are so many important teachings here that I do not have time to address but that we still need to hear.  It is more important for all of us to hear from God than to hear from me.  So even though I cannot get to every verse in this chapter this morning, we can still hear God speaking them to us.  And even though this chapter is filled with significant lessons, the one I want to highlight is that which I have read from verses 9 and 10: Christians have the certainty of hope.

 

Let’s jump back to verses 1 and 2 for a moment.  “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.  Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”  Throughout this part of his letter, Paul then specifies some of the false teachings he refers to.  Some of them are not part of our experience today, and some are very much still alive in our world today.  That is not all that important because we derive through all the Scriptures what pleases God and what does not please God.  We do not need a complete list in every book of the Bible.

 

We do know that we have a lot of deception circulating in our day.  Before I go on, please understand something clearly.  I am not calling anyone satan or a demon or anything like that.  We are all human and subject to errors in judgment and mistakes.  We know throughout history and even today people who have been very sincere in their belief.  The problem is that not every belief is sincere.  If we put our hope in anything or anyone other than the living God, we are going to be misguided by a false hope.  Satan wants nothing better than to lead those whose hope is not in the living God in a direction far different than in a saving relationship with our living God.

 

Just in case you are not aware of it, we are in the midst of a national election.  All of the candidates at all levels of all political parties, particularly the two major political parties, have been getting their messages out for several months.  Yes, it has been a long time, and, yes, I, too, am ready for it to be over.  But hang in there; we still have an important job to do.  As in all of our more recent political campaigns, there are several issues that become necessary for voters to become informed about and to make decisions about.  It is not my purpose to attempt to go over a laundry list of all the issues dogging us in this campaign.  If I tried to do that, you would get up and walk out on me; you would have every right to.  But because we have the hope that is made certain by our living God, neither can we ignore every issue that is before us.  Two moral issues that are still at the heart of many of our contemporary political debates are homosexuality and abortion.

 

Making homosexuality legitimate in our society and imposing homosexual advocates’ values on all of us are becoming the norm today.  States such as California and Massachusetts continue to go forward with changing laws and circumventing the will of their citizens in order to legitimize and recognize the marriage of homosexual couples.  Other states are moving toward recognizing a category called homosexual unions.  Not only do I believe that our nation’s Founders would not approve of this move, I also observe that these homosexual marriage and union laws are being created and imposed upon citizens in a manner that violates the constitutions of both state and federal governments.

 

This is an issue for Christians because God has told us plain enough in His Word that the act of homosexuality is sinful.  It is certainly far from the only sin revealed in Scripture, but it is one that has become a major battle in our culture.  I am not out to suggest that homosexuals be tracked down and persecuted in any way, but I am certainly opposed to granting certain legal status by our government to citizens who favor open acceptance of this sin.  The only way that Judeo-Christian pastors, Rabbis, scholars, and others can justify an acceptance of homosexual behavior is by intentionally distorting the accepted application of the language and the words of Scripture concerning homosexuality and revising the meaning of the original authors.  In other words, “such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”

 

One of the few safeguards that states currently have to defend themselves against the imposition of having to recognize homosexual unions and marriages from both other states and foreign countries is the Defense of Marriage Act.  Currently, Indiana or any other state that does not want to recognize such a marriage or union is protected by federal law from having to do so.  Senator McCain supports the Defense of Marriage Act; Senator Obama calls for a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.  I also add that one of the already documented results of being forced to recognize homosexual unions and marriages is that calling homosexuality a sin is regarded as an act of hate.  Religious leaders who write, speak, and preach against homosexual behavior are subject to prosecution.  I would imagine that born-again Christian laity will also come to be persecuted for hate speech if they speak out against homosexuality.  I can even imagine somewhere down this road that Bible publishers, if they are allowed to be printed at all, will have to leave out the verses that refer to the sin of homosexuality.  When it comes down to it, the assault on the fabric of our nation by homosexual advocates is, in the end, an assault on God.

 

The issue of abortion has also reached a fever pitch at various times in our national, state, and local elections.  Again, one wonders how we ever got to the point of having to debate the outright legitimacy of cruelly murdering a human being in the womb, partially born, or, as unimaginable as it may be to some of you, even fully born if the baby actually survived an abortion attempt.  It is, indeed, a grievous state of affairs, but this is where we are.  Illinois lawmakers sought to bring the Born Alive Infant Protection Act (BAIPA), requiring that a baby surviving a late-term abortion receive protection equal to that granted other newborns, to the floor for vote.  In testimony before the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee, nurse Jill Stanek described how, at a suburban hospital, "One night, a nursing co-worker was taking an aborted Down syndrome baby who was born alive to our Soiled Utility Room because his parents did not want to hold him, and she did not have the time to hold him.  I couldn't bear the thought of this suffering child lying alone in a Soiled Utility Room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived." (www.jillstanek.com/archives/aborted-alive)  Over three straight legislative sessions, Senator Obama prevented the BAIPA bill from reaching the floor for a vote, thus ensuring that it would never be passed while he was there. (www.thejudeo-christianview.com)  Partial birth abortion is a procedure that involves delivering all but the head of a full-term infant, piercing the child’s skull, and sucking his or her brains out.  Senator Obama favors allowing partial birth abortion; Senator McCain opposes partial birth abortion.

 

Life can get complicated.  Issues can get complicated.  No candidate at any level seeking our vote is perfect.  However, there are movements in our nation that have dire consequences on who we are as a people.  They have dire consequences on who we are as creatures in the hands of a loving, compassionate, saving God.  I think that Scripture teaches, overall, two ways in which God brings His righteous corrections to bear.  One is through His direct intervention.  In the history of Israel, God’s judgment was carried out through means such as an affliction of sickness and plague, the destruction of harvests, the invasion of fierce enemy forces, or a combination of these.  The other way is through His natural law.  In other words, certain actions have certain consequences.  When people use their wages for pornography and prostitution – two “industries” that have seen financial increases since Americans received their tax rebate checks, by the way – or for gambling or for other discretionary entertainment spending instead of paying the mortgage or rent or utilities or for groceries, then the consequence is that they suffer financially.  When people engage in sinful sexual activity and transfer sexually transmitted diseases, then they suffer ill health and possibly die.  Actions have consequences, and the Bible says that the “wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)  Regardless of how it comes, death follows sin.  On the Judeo-Christian View website, nine Jewish Rabbis from New York sends this letter: “To:  Our fellow American Citizens, Clergy and Laity - Greetings and Shalom!  We wish to express the strongest of sentiments utilizing our own words with regard to what is at stake in days ahead.  The information contained in both the body and footnotes of the letter herein regarding the Obama and McCain records is of vital importance, i.e., on the subject of the homosexual agenda and, God forbid, homosexual marriage, which creates a ‘compelling state interest’ which could override our constitutional rights and freedom of religion, as well as on the killing of pre-born and even post-born babies.  From a Torah perspective, the most important issues are to deal with the decay of moral leadership which promotes the type of immorality which leads God to remove his grace from us.  The result is death, disease, poverty, and catastrophe.  Those who uphold His values and cause others to do so will assuredly merit his bountiful blessings.”  God’s Word says, “Be diligent in these matters, give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.  Watch your life and doctrine closely.  Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:15-16)

 

God’s Word is a message of hope and change.  Because our hope is certain, I do not intend for anyone to leave in a state of fear or hopelessness.  It doesn’t work that way.  The God to whom we devote our worship this morning is the same God to whom we will direct our devotions on Wednesday of this week.  In regard to my relationship to God and my devotion to His Kingdom, Tuesday shrinks to insignificance.  The reason is simple and straightforward: The same God who led Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Paul, Peter, John, and countless others, also leads me.  He leads us and all of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)

 

“This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:9-10)  This is the certainty of hope. 

 

 

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

www.bhfirstbaptist.com

 

 

 

 

 

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